Ailsa Mellon Bruce (June 28, 1901 β August 25, 1969) was a prominent American socialite and philanthropist who established the Avalon Foundation.
Ailsa Mellon Bruce (June 28, 1901 β August 25, 1969) was a prominent American socialite and philanthropist who established the Avalon Foundation.
The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in 1937 for the American people by a joint resolution of the United States Congress. Andrew W. Mellon donated a substantial art collection and funds for construction.
The core collection includes major works of art donated by Paul Mellon, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, Lessing J. Rosenwald, Samuel Henry Kress, Rush Harrison Kress, Peter Arrell Browne Widener, Joseph E. Widener, and Chester Dale. The Gallery's collection of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, medals, and decorative arts traces the development of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present and includes the largest mobile created by Alexander Calder.
Paul Mellon (June 11, 1907 β February 2, 1999) was an American philanthropist and a breeder of thoroughbred racehorses. He is one of only five people ever designated an "Exemplar of Racing" by the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. He was co-heir to one of America's greatest business fortunes, derived from the Mellon Bank created by his grandfather Thomas Mellon, his father Andrew W. Mellon, and his father's brother Richard B. Mellon. In 1957, when Fortune prepared its first list of the wealthiest Americans, it estimated that Paul Mellon, his sister Ailsa Mellon Bruce, and his cousins Sarah Mellon and Richard King Mellon, were all among the richest eight people in the United States, with fortunes between $400 million and $500 million each (between about $4.3 billion and $7.6 billion in today's dollars).
Mellon was married to Mary Conover Brown from 1935 until her death in 1946. They had two children, Catherine Conover Mellon (first wife of John Warner) and Timothy Mellon. In 1948, Paul Mellon married his second wife, Rachel Lambert Mellon ("Bunny") (August 9, 1910βMarch 17, 2014) who had two children, Stacy Lloyd III and Eliza, Viscountess Moore with her first husband, Stacy Barcroft Lloyd, Jr. whom she had divorced in 1948.